“[h]uman history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

One unique characteristic to human beings is our desire to reach for higher things, for higher knowledge.  While I was reading Boethius’s writing, I kept in mind the question I need to answer for the final paper: “What does it mean to be human?”  For Boethius, the best kind of man is one who has achieved the ultimate and perfect happiness, the “supreme good” that is based off of the perfect goodness of God.  His writing begins with Lady Philosophy coming to him in prison to discuss with him the meaning of life.  (Side note: in my personal opinion, the best parts are where she gets on Boethius’s case because he complains about his misfortune.)

Philosophy schools Boethius on how pointless temporary happiness is and how neither wealth nor power nor glory nor any kind of earthly pleasure fulfills because such things are just as fleeting as the earth and humanness they derive from.  So then, Boethius and the audience question: what then is good if “human happiness is neither complete nor permanent”?  Furthermore, if the goal of humanity is to achieve this supreme good, is true happiness attainable?  Why do people lack it and how can people go about achieving it?  According to Philosophy, the answer is in spiritual knowledge: “the supreme good and highest happiness are found in God and are God”.  Boethius, of course, wholeheartedly agrees.  Of course, if God is THE ultimate good, it makes sense for humans to reach for it.  After all, human beings were created in God’s image, and after the Fall, our ability to be on such a personal, pure relationship with God was lost; humanity has been trying to get back to that state ever since–full of joy and without the burdens of worry and the need to fill the void in our souls left over after sin entered the world.  Thinking back to the Plato and Aristotle readings, it is clear that Boethius holds their views rather highly as he refers to Plato a few times toward the end of Book III.  Plato and Aristotle understood that part of what it means to be fully human includes the active and vehement search for knowledge and a higher understanding.  Boethius adds to that by saying the knowledge of God is the way to true good (virtue) and therefore, true happiness.  Harkening back to that one day in class when we drew the triangles, I think we have all the points covered for the knowledge and virtue triangles: Plato believes knowledge and virtue are acquired through reason, Aristotle believe they are acquired through experience and praxis, and Boethius believes they are acquired through revelation (one could argue he falls somewhere between praxis and revelation). Boethius really ties it all up.  All this striving to attain higher things, to fill the void in our souls, it is simply because we were made this way–made to seek God.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

With thoughts of the final paper in the forefront of my mind, Boethius will be a prime source in my point that to be fully human, one must actively seek both earthly knowledge and understanding as well as heavenly knowledge and understanding. That being said, I should probably get on it.  It’s been a great semester, y’all, but all good things must come to an end.  Hang in there; it’s almost over.  Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!